Family Vacation 2025: Crater Lake

 

Last week, our family took an all-too-short vacation to Crater Lake.

You’ve probably seen hundreds of pictures of Crater Lake. I took more than 50 myself on this trip. I took them knowing that no picture I’ve ever seen truly captures either the scope or the particular shade of blue in that water.

No words can describe, or picture capture, the amazing blue of Crater Lake.

There’s a scientific reason Crater Lake is such as startling blue. It has to do with the depth and clarity of the lake—Crater Lake is one of the deepest lakes in the world, and its waters are among the purest in the world. That allows light to penetrate deeply, so blue light is scattered more.

Still, those explanations don’t really prepare you for the amazing color palette God used when he created that famous body of water. It’s truly one of the world’s wonders that you have to see for yourself to fully grasp.

Crater Lake is a drive of several hours for us, nearly as far as the Oregon Coast. Since we weren’t able to get an early start on our Monday drive, we stopped about halfway, at a KOA campground near Madras, Oregon. I will freely admit that I had never stayed at a KOA before. When I was growing up, camping was less a destination and more a way of avoiding the higher costs of hotels, so parks like KOA were considered too expensive. At least, that’s what I remember.

Anyway, I was duly impressed. Our family of five stayed in a teepee that was both roomy and comfortable. It had actual beds. With mattresses. Yes, it was the cost of a motel room in some states. Trust me when I say, though, that hotels in Central Oregon in the height of vacation season are waaaayyy more expensive. Even though we were nowhere near our destination, the vista of the high desert country with the Cascade Mountains in the distance was extraordinary. We kind of didn’t want to leave.

Since we were still in semi-arid country close to home, and low enough in elevation (about 2,600 feet), the temperature at night never dropped below the “pleasantly cool” zone.

The same can’t be said of our journey's end. At 6,178 feet in elevation, with the caldera rim ranging from 7,000 to 8,000 feet in elevation, the climate at Crater Lake is considered subalpine. Shaded areas around Crater Lake can still hold snow even at the end of July. Since our own semi-desert climate means little snow even in winter, our teen/tween children were in awe of the large patches of white we saw along the road.

The campground at Mazama Village was booked solid well before I started planning our short family trip. The only other campground in Crater Lake National Park, Lost Creek Campground, turned out to be closed for the season. That left us grabbing a last-minute free spot at nearby Diamond Lake.

Around the Campfire at Diamond Lake.

Diamond Lake is about a thousand feet lower than Crater Lake, but still an elevation of 5,184 feet. Our sleeping bags and multiple blankets were no match for the cold the two nights we stayed there. Lesson learned.

Cold aside, it was a fantastic, if quick, vacation. Since we arrived early Tuesday afternoon and left early Thursday morning, we ended up only having one full day at Crater Lake. We spent the morning meandering around the lookouts at Rim Village and then had lunch at Crater Lake Lodge. After lunch, we finally made it to my main reason for pushing for a Crater Lake visit this summer—the trail to Cleetwood Cove.

Even from the end of Cleetwood Cove Trail, the trip to the water is rocky and steep.

The Rim Drive offers multiple viewpoints with every-varying vistas, but Cleetwood Cove trail is the one and only way to reach the water at Crater Lake. If you want to fish, swim or take a boat tour to Wizard Island, you have to walk the grueling trail from the rim to the water’s edge. Cleetwood Cove will be closed for maintenance for the next couple of years, so I felt like it was a now-or-never moment to experience one of the world’s most famous lakes up close.

The view of the water from Cleetwood Cove.

Cleetwood Cove trail isn’t for the faint of heart. Remember the elevation difference I mentioned between the lake and the rim? While the trail is only about a two-mile round-trip, it drops 700 feet in a series of steep switchbacks. It’s not such a big deal on the way down—maybe a little hard on the knees—but you really feel it on the way up. I’ve let myself get out of shape the last couple of years, and I deeply regretted it on the climb back up that trail.

Splashing in the rare water of Crater Lake.

That said, the climb was worth it, and I’m glad we took the chance to visit Cleetwood Cove, even if we spent more time driving than hiking on this trip. Crater Lake is famous for a reason. This blog post, like so many, falls far short of explaining why.

 

Gazing across Crater Lake at Cleetwood Cove.